1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an assembly.
The present invention further relates to a method of assembling.
The present invention further relates to a tile for use in the assembly.
2. Related Art
An electro-physical transducer is defined herein as a device that converts an electrical signal into a physical phenomenon, or that converts a physical phenomenon into an electrical signal. Examples of the first are electro-luminescent devices, electro-acoustic devices, and electro-chrome devices. Examples of the second are photovoltaic devices, acoustic sensors, and touch sensors.
Electro-optical devices are known that are manufactured in the form of a flexible foil. Although this allows certain degrees of freedom it is still not possible to deform such devices into arbitrary shapes, for example in the form of a spherical shape. Although it may be considered to manufacture such devices into a particular predetermined shape for example by successively depositing layers onto a mold having the desired shape, the resulting product can not be formed for another purpose. Let alone that the product is arbitrarily deformable during use. There is a need for electro-physical transducers that can be deformed for other purposes or that even can be arbitrarily deformed during use.
The need for having arbitrarily deformable transducers arises for example from applications in which the electronics is to be readily fitted to a certain three dimensional object, e.g. as a coverage of furniture or car interiors for example.
The need to allow for deformations during use for example arises in medical applications, for example in applications using photon radiation for treatment of the human skin. Another example is in robotics, wherein it is desired to have a touch sensitive function in an artificial skin, having a deformable shape.
It is noted that WO/2009/134127 describes a composite microphone that comprises a flexible and stretchable substrate with a grid of flexible and stretchable first and second conductors. The first conductors are arranged transverse to the second conductors. A plurality of acoustic sensors is each in connection with a respective pair of conductors in the grid. The substrate carrying the acoustic sensors can be arranged upon arbitrary shaped surfaces, for example on a hemispheric surface, therewith obtaining a microphone that is sensitive in a large spatial angle. The acoustic sensors do not substantially limit the freedom of movement of the substrate as the acoustic sensor may occupy only a small portion of the area of the substrate.
In many applications it is desired that the electro-physical property of the transducer is substantially homogeneous while the freedom of movement of the carrier is preserved. For example in case of an electro-optical device for radiation of the human skin it is desired that the human skin is homogeneously irradiated. In case of an artificial skin having touch sensitivity it is desired that it does not have insensitive spots.